I'm on Google news, at 7:30 p.m. on a Saturday night, browsing for stories to blog about. (I acknowledge there are two problems with my opener: I ended it with a preposition and it contains the embarrassing confession that I have no life.)
I glance at the headlines to the left of the page; there are 4,293 stories at my disposal covering the mysterious death of actor David Carradine.
Since I'm a math geek, I notice that four of the surrounding headlines display a total of related stories somewhere in the 4,000 range. I notice their sum ends with the digit 3, so I chuckle at the possibility that the numbers might match. I do the math. (You'll recall I have no life.)
4,283 is the grand total. I kid you not. Ten more stories out there on a has-been actor's suicide/murder/accident than on the president's approach to health care reform, the launch of new Palm Pre, the day in major league baseball, and a little thing we like to call the demise of the U.S. auto industry.
I'm disturbed. Which I kind of shouldn't be, since this kind of "creative" prioritization happens every single day. But then again, I'm relieved that I'm still disturbed.
Venting complete. Carry on.
(OK, one P.S., but just one: God help us if any serious calamity should befall Jim Carrey or Angelina Jolie. Ever.)
The primary difference is that Jim Carrey has actually created joy in the lives of millions of people - something the Obama health care reform will never achieve. And Angelina Jolie, well, her full impact on the male population is yet to be written.
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